This Week in Geek (16-22/11/09)

Buys

The theme of this week's buys is people fighting the supernatural on tv. I got the Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 and for really, really cheap, all seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I've probably watched less than a season of Buffy over the years, but I've never disliked it, and recent Whedon discoveries like Firefly and Dr. Horrible made me jump at the chance of getting all seven seasons essentially for the price of a single season of Star Trek. Why not.

"Accomplishments"

DVDs: Flipped Spooks/MI-5 Series 1, and even with only 6 episodes, I thought it was an engrossing success. After that shocker in episode 2, I was hooked for life. As the series is still going on, I think it's gonna cost me a pretty penny to get up to date. And it was lovely to catch Hugh Laurie (House) and Naoko Mori (Torchwood) in "before they were stars (to me)" moments. There are tons of extras on the discs, with clever "you are the spy" menus that make them all seem like Easter eggs (I eventually found that the skip button could release me from watching the overlong animations). In addition to commentary tracks, there are all sorts of featurettes, interviews and hidden credits (the show airs without credits... ooh, secretive!).

Our Hong Kong movie showing this week was Infernal Affairs 3, at once an immediate prequel and sequel to the original film, whereas IA2 took place so long ago, it really just stands on its own. Tony Leung and Andy Lau are back and in great form, though sadly, the characters of Wong and Sam are very minor players this time (which is fine, given they got starring roles in the previous installment. People talk about diminishing returns, but there are still some great scenes and awesome stylistic touches (the dual psych appointment for example). The DVD does have fewer features though, with no commentary and only a short (but good) featurette to call its own.

Big Finish Doctor Who audios: My, how that ipod is proving useful! Wanting to find out a little more about new companion Hex, I decided to listen to a few more 7th Doctor stories. The first of these was the quite strange Dreamtime by Simon Forward, which made impressive use of Australian mythology. I didn't always understand what was going on, but strong sound design and sufficiently interesting images made it a winner overall. It basically starts with the TARDIS landing on Ayres Rock flying through space on a small asteroid and goes on from there. Good because it was so unusual, though I was disappointed the "clutch" aliens weren't actually the Chelonians from the New Adventures (they're Forward's creations from The Sandman, which I skipped, but will go back to soon).

Then came Live 34 by James Parsons and Andrew Stirling-Brown, one of those audios that actually uses the audio format in a clever way. Gone is the Doctor Who theme, and instead we get a series of radio broadcasts (on Live 34) that tell the story of impending revolution on a colony world through news items, interviews, and investigative reports. It's a fun experience that unfortunately (and perhaps necessarily) devolves into long exposition in the last chapter. Still, lots of nice touches, from sound dropping out to censored words, as well as a real live news presenter lending his voice to the faux radio station. As someone who used to produce similar radio news programs, I can vouch for the fact it actually SOUNDS like such a broadcast (until the last bit at least) and I could tell just what was going on behind the scenes in the studio just by experience.

I don't know what kind of episode Edward Young's Night Thoughts would have been on tv, but it was commissioned for Season 27, which never happened. I guess it would have turned out something like Ghost Light. While I appreciate the attempt at a moody, thoughtful horror story, I've got to call this one a failure. Despite the atmosphere, nothing really happens for two chapters, and then the whole thing turns into melodrama that had me turning my eyes into my head. The only thing worse than the ham-handed revelations was the time travel physics on show that are so far past nonsense that they plunge head first into drivel. But at least something happens in the last half.

Simon Guerrier's The Settling is Hex's first foray into history and of course, he tries to change it by preventing a massacre. It's a great vehicle for his character, using his compassion and self-doubt to good effect. And is that a crush on Ace he's nursing? Fun dynamic. While I'm a fan of pure historicals, and I like that the audios do routinely go down that route, as a North American, this one lost me in parts. I'm afraid Oliver Cromwell is not as big a historical figure here as he is in the UK. Made me learn more about history, which I suppose is the whole point! Also, top marks on the very evocative music. Very nice.

Switching gears, I listened to The Sandman, Simon Forward's story that ties into Dreamtime (yeah, I got them in reverse). Though it has an intriguing premise, with the 6th Doctor consciously being an entire species' bogeyman, the various aliens' voices are just plain annoying. For the same reason that I find Dalek stories a little trying - screaming distorted voices - I had trouble with this one. Anneke Wills (60s companion Polly) plays one of those voices, but you can't tell it's her, nullifying any cool factor her participation might have generated. Good ideas, good imagery, irritating execution.

New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: 31 new cards this week, completing the Adventures in History set with cards from The Time Meddler and The War Games among others. That tally also includes cards from Relative Dimensions 5, my annual "boutique product" featuring cards from extracanonical sources like novels and audios. Here's Hex:Someone Else's Post of the WeekDoctor Who's Character Sheet is up for discussion on Hero Press. Make sure to click the link to the pdf to read all the wonderful "Traits" your favorite Time Lord has. This is making more and more excited about the upcoming role-playing game!

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comments:

Say, I couldn't find an email address on your page, so I decided on an off-topic post here. I like your blog, and used to bump into you at the Absorbascon. I've got a tongue-in-cheek pitch to follow I hope you'll consider...

Alright, enough with the Troy McClure shtick. I personally haven't run one of these shindigs before, but I thought it might be nice to give it a try. Most people receiving this email have already participated, and have at least one DC-centric blog. I'm going to try to expand our circle some more though, and there are enough characters to go around that non-specific blogs can "adopt" to join in. There will also be different MPAA-style "rated" blogs (my Idol-Head is pretty PG, while ...nurgh... is a soft "R,") but I can work to make sure all-ages blogs aren't contaminated with more mature links. My take is to be a bit more interactive by running a "scavenger hunt" where readers can bounce from blog to blog, advancing by answering trivia questions related to a DC Comics character your blog would represent. Right answers would bring readers closer to "a lush scan from an obscure George Pérez pin-up featuring every major character involved in this event," hosted by a site I don't run TBA. For the longest time, I considered giving away stuff, like a complete set of the DC Challenge mini-series, but realized too much trouble and personal information trafficking would be involved. Instead, we'll keep it neat, fun, and coast on the high end of our average daily hit counts.

I've got an example post up at http://nurgh.blogspot.com/2009/11/crisis-on-earth-blog-dc-challenge.html I'll be happy to provide all the necessary art, text and html, making this a free "day off" for the daily blogger. Folks can contribute as much as they'd like, though, preferably at least the trivia questions and correct answer. Also, you'll not the "E" answer of "I don't know/Error Message." This exists to offer confused readers a correct answer should they be uninformed or unable to access a page for some reason. It's also an opportunity to direct readers deeper into your blog for choice material from your archive, so you can strut your stuff. Questions can be as difficult as you want, but please be sure the answers name check a DC character in some way, to adhere to the format. Also, for the love of God, please be sure both your question and answer are verifiably correct.

The plan is to run the event sometime around the second week of December. All I ask is that everyone try to post around the same time, but there should be enough participants that the only problem would be if the "winner" site failed to publish. As I said, everyone will receive a 400 pixel wide detail from the piece, and everyone would be free to post the full image (which I'll host on Photobucket) on their blog after observing a respectable waiting period for the sake of the "winning" blog.

Anyway, thanks for reading this far, and I hope you consider joining in."Frank Lee Delano"

Thanks again for HeroPress plug ;) Have to say, with only a week to go until the Doctor Who RPG game's launch I'm starting to get slightly concerned by the almost total lack of pre-publicity, promotions etc

Someone on the Cubicle 7 forums suggested it was akin to the lack of advance/review screenings for a duff movie... they are hoping to score off of the initial "Doctor Who" connection before word of mouth gets around that it's actually not that good a game. Fingers crossed that's a cynical attitude that will soon be proved wrong, but you do have to wonder...

I think you'll probably like Buffy. My wife has been a fan for years, but I'd never seen the show before I got her Season One for her birthday in September. I really enjoyed it and at the prices we've found the sets for, we've bought up the rest. Currently we're about five episodes in to season five, and it's definitely been worth it.

Like many shows, the first season has it's rough spots, but watch more for the characters than the plots and I think you'll find it enjoyable.

the Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas are definitely on to be checked out soon list.

Buffy started strong and should have ended with season five. I found seasons six not so great. Six annoyed me so that I just stopped watching. Eventually I'll get around to it because I'm a geek and I'm must.